A regal name in distortion pedals, the Tube King returns to the Ibanez lineup. While the name and purpose of the Ibanez distortion pedal is the same as the original '90s models, this version of Tube King, the TK999HT, differs from its two predecessors in that it features internal high voltage DC circuitry instead of previous "starved plate" low voltage circuitry. Ibanez says that makes a significant difference.

With the TK999HT the 12AX7 gets normal DC high voltage, allowing total linear operation of the tube. It works just like a tube preamp because it effectively is one! The result is that the TK999HT distortion pedal makes any solid-state amp sound like a tube amp. The distortion is massive yet tight.

Simply amazing pedal it looks awsome with the big glowing tube and it sounds even better. You can set it to just be a clean crunch machine or dial it in nasty and blow...Read complete review

Simply amazing pedal it looks awsome with the big glowing tube and it sounds even better. You can set it to just be a clean crunch machine or dial it in nasty and blow the roof offMore features than most distortion pedals and all the controls actually do make a difference in the sound. There is no battery compartment with this beast because its so powerful it HAS to be used with the supplied power pack, which works for me cause batteries get expensive. I love the high/low switch that basically emphasizes which one you want to come through more and all other knobs are easy to dail in, even has a setting which adds sustain!!!Metal construction and the way to go. its heavy and heavy duty.I know the price seems like a lot for a single effect pedal but its totally worth it. I have had cheap distortion pedals and the tone and sound is just not there, once I brought this home and plugged it in I knew what I had been searching for was melting my face off then and there!!!

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I had wanted this pedal for over a year, ever since I saw the review for it in Guitar World. After having it for about a month, I've got to say...pretty...Read complete review

I had wanted this pedal for over a year, ever since I saw the review for it in Guitar World. After having it for about a month, I've got to say...pretty disappointed. The lows are really muddy which is not ideal for death metal riffing/palm mutes. Low end sounds flabby instead of tight and focused.At first I thought I could remedy the sound with a different tube. Took out the electro harmonix 12ax7 it came with and put a Tung sol instead (it was tricky to replace). That cleaned up the low end a little and added more gain...but still not tight enough for metal.Then I thought it was my pickup, so I bought a d-activator x (which is awesome btw). Sounded better, but still not good enough.Overall, it's not worth the money if you play any metal that implements palm muting. Chords sound meaty and full bodied, highs during soloing are pretty good too, but just not useful for any non-commercial metal. I would not recommend this pedal for metal/death metal.

I love this thing!! It has a very natural tube drive tone (makes sense, it comes from the tube in it). It goes anywhere from clean sparkling drive all the way to monster metal, all depending on how you dial it up.no other pedal has quite this same range of possibility. I love it. try one out if you get a chance, and you'll buy it.

I have about 14 years playing, I tried a lot of pedals, some distortions sounds hoorrible and makes a lot of noise, this thing sound's amazing and it's true sound like a tube amp with the power of the high gain, also have a noise gate I use this with a tube screamer and guest what the noise of my ts with the distortion it's not there anymore, can you belive sound's great and also I don't need to use another noise gate, it also works like a decimator, so for the price I found this like the best option, in another hand I love the warm and bright that tubes produces but I hate to work with them, if you have a great amp with a good clean chanel, with a TS mod,this distortion pedal with only one tube,and some good warm pick ups in your guitar, I can honestly say that you are going to sound better than some guitar players that uses tube amps, It's true the people always says that my tone it's amazing playing alive and I'm proud of that.

Simply amazing pedal it looks awsome with the big glowing tube and it sounds even better. You can set it to just be a clean crunch machine or dial it in nasty and blow the roof offMore features than most distortion pedals and all the controls actually do make a difference in the sound. There is no battery compartment with this beast because its so powerful it HAS to be used with the supplied power pack, which works for me cause batteries get expensive. I love the high/low switch that basically emphasizes which one you want to come through more and all other knobs are easy to dail in, even has a setting which adds sustain!!!Metal construction and the way to go. its heavy and heavy duty.I know the price seems like a lot for a single effect pedal but its totally worth it. I have had cheap distortion pedals and the tone and sound is just not there, once I brought this home and plugged it in I knew what I had been searching for was melting my face off then and there!!!

Fantastic pedal! This is NOT an overdrive pedal so don't expect it to sweeten a sound that already has a lot of gain - all it will do is add a lot of font end compression and make the sound mushy. It is more like a replacement for the high gain setting on a tube amp. Backing off the volume on the guitar and using just a little bit of gain on the pedal produces really great crunch sounds. The noise gate does its job well as well. If you spend a little time tweaking a wide variety of distortion sounds are possible. I really really love this pedal. The lack of a battery option doesn't bother me since I always used power adapters. If it was lost I would buy it again in a heartbeat!

I find this to be my current dist pedal fav, it has a very wide range of dist voices, well designed and kicks major butt! If is not an OD however so do not expect to gain it down for that purpose. They make a White model OD for this which I intend to get asap. This unit requires the power supply it comes w as it ia a very high current pedal, the tube really cooks in this puppy. If you try and starve it using an avg 9v or do the dumb daisy chain thing I can see how it would sound terrible much less how it would even work. This is a 400mA current draw, I have never had anything use this high a current and it is stepped up inside. Before I took this puppy out of the box I was empressed by the weight of it. It feels like you have something of substance in your hands and not a hollow box toy. The size was also much bigger than I expected judging by the pictures. A seriously well made product and a spectrum of gain voices. Tweaking on it brought forth some of the best gain tones I have had in a number of years. This is a ridiculously top end product for $150! All this crappola about changing tubes and tossing the EH 12X7A is nonsense. I often use a JAN 5751 in my amp and I can tell you there is very, very little difference in the end result of most tubes. It all depends on the design of the circuit as to the structure of the tone. Replacing this w a Tung Sol that I typically use is not going to magically change the unit, not even a lower gain 5751 or other is worth messing with. Try tweaking the unit, it has an enormous range of distortion gain and voice, if you cannot get a good tone out of it, it cannot ne this box. I like the voice from this better than the high gain channel on my half stack. If you want less gain, get the OD which I intend to get now that I have seen the quality of this pedal.

I seriously believe that those who gave this pedal poor marks for tone were either too impatient with finding the right settings, or simply do not know how to use effects pedals. I play a bunch of different "loud" music, from crust punk & metallic hardcore through lighter pop-punk, and this pedal has solved a bunch of problems for me. it's a really thick and rich distortion, incredible for heavy music, and the low end is really outstanding. not at all loose like some appear to have found. I prefer a low-mid heavy sound, and I can get just what I want from this pedal (though it is naturally voiced with slightly scooped mids). Just take a bit to mess around dialing it in. I really love it. I use it live, and when I record. I use it all the time.

I had wanted this pedal for over a year, ever since I saw the review for it in Guitar World. After having it for about a month, I've got to say...pretty disappointed. The lows are really muddy which is not ideal for death metal riffing/palm mutes. Low end sounds flabby instead of tight and focused.At first I thought I could remedy the sound with a different tube. Took out the electro harmonix 12ax7 it came with and put a Tung sol instead (it was tricky to replace). That cleaned up the low end a little and added more gain...but still not tight enough for metal.Then I thought it was my pickup, so I bought a d-activator x (which is awesome btw). Sounded better, but still not good enough.Overall, it's not worth the money if you play any metal that implements palm muting. Chords sound meaty and full bodied, highs during soloing are pretty good too, but just not useful for any non-commercial metal. I would not recommend this pedal for metal/death metal.

I have been playing almost 30 years and have used a large assortment of distortion pedals. I have an old Ibanez TS9 which has been flawless. Using my new Marshall Haze 40 the crunch is good but not over the top. I bought 4 new pedals and sent them back until the TK999hd. WOW. This goes from creamy sustain to shed, amazing. The built in noise gate works perfectly with the pedal. I am really impressed. Quality? Cant say but my old TS9 is still cranking over 10 years...I fully expect the same with this pedal. If you want tube distortion with a built in noise gate this may be perfect for you.

I drooled over this pedal so much before i found out about it, I thought that having a tube distortion would be a dream come true. I rated the features 4.5 because its nice to have a tube and noise gate in your pedal... even though the noise gate eventually broke! Anyway, heres a pile of good reasons why you should pay an extra 70 bucks for the duncan twin-tube, or the electro-hamonix twin-tube distortion (or anything else for that matter).First of all, this pedal was built with the flimsiest quality ive ever seen. The LED that lights up the tube died, and the noise gate (Void switch) stopped working... and that happened in less than 6 months of buying this pedal NEW. In terms of tone, gain, and volume... again, not the best, my Digitech Death Metal distortion pedal kills this thing over and over. The highs are very weak, and it sounds too bassy, and even if you're the type that tunes 16 steps down, this pedal under-performs. When i raise the volume to the max, it barely competes with my digitech Death Metal set at 1/3 of volume. And unless your the type that settles for only moderate gains, this pedal wont cut it. I have a Dimarzio X2N pickup intalled on my Ibanez, and this pedal makes it sound WEAK. For those of you who dont know, the X2N is the most powerful hi-output pickup offered by Dimarzio. This pedal wasn't built for metal.When playing blues, I prefer using my digitech Hot-Head, despite being a trashy cheap pedal but it still beats this so called "King." This pedal wasn't built for blues either.By the way, This pedal wont take batteries, and it wont take a standard 9V DC adapter. Thats because it operates on a 12 Volt AC adapter ONLY, and AC adapters are VERY hard to find, not to mention replace. Oh, did i mention that the original adapter that came with my pedal died as well??? Had fun replacing it...I only use this pedal when I dont want to raise the volume too high, when i dont want to wake people up, or when when im practicing and there is no need for the whole block to hear me learn, and in the process mutilate, Satch Boogie.Bottom line, it aint what its cooked up to be. This pedal is overrated. Your money is better spent elsewhere, a Metal Muff or a Malmsteen distortion (for single coils) will give you almost anything you're looking for, there are better products out there.

dude this retired my metalzone within 5 minutes. ive put a strat thru this and rolled thegain back hit the low switch and cranked the mids and wow i was in sweep picking frenzy!! i put my drop tuned ibanez and it was evil slipknot meshugga kalmah easy i put ny B.C. Rich with emg 81/85s in it and ooh metal tone from the gods amazing range ofsound and versatillity and the noisegate is nice when using lots of gain or overdriving the pedal with a zakk wylde overdrive